Another Dimension
by DhampyrX2
Summary: When Hekapoo decided to do Queen Moon a favor and test the chosen companion of the Crown Princess of Mewni she never expected to do more than just test him. How was she supposed to deal with suddenly actually caring about a fragile little mortal that just had to go and impress her to the point she though of him as her own? Humans were just so vexing sometimes...


Title: Another Dimension

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: General

Rating: K+ ish

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

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Notes: When Hekapoo decided to do Queen Moon a favor and test the chosen companion of the Crown Princess of Mewni she never expected to do more than just test him. How was she supposed to deal with suddenly actually caring about a fragile little mortal that just had to go and impress her to the point she though of him as her own? Humans were just so vexing sometimes...

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It had all seemed so simple at first, Hekapoo recalled as she returned to her dimension after marking Marco Diaz one final time with a triumphant cry of "You've got the Mark of Hekapoo, Son." In fact she doubted Marco had any idea what she was really saying as she did it. She was certain Moon's brat didn't get what she had really said given the girl was too into staring at Marco's abs before, and teasing him over losing them to Hekapoo's ability to return him to his original point in the timeline, to take note of what would seem to both of them like a final bit of playful one-upsmanship with Marco for daring to call her "H-poo" again.

The Forger of All Dimensional scissors let out a despondent sigh as she idly scratched the head of Nacho, Marco's prized dragon-cycle that he had left in Hekapoo's care as he chose to return to Earth with Mewni's Crown Princess. "Your daddy has no idea just what he means to me, does he girl? Darn it, I'm not even supposed to _care_ about mortals. Much less weak and powerless ones like common humans. How did I get from testing that cocky and stubborn little brat I met sixteen years ago to thinking of him as if he were my own son?"

Of course Hekapoo knew where it all started. It started with a conversation with the only technical mortal on the Magic High Commission in the form of Queen Moon Butterfly all of a week ago in Earth and Mewni time. Not that time meant anything in the dimension Hekapoo resided within. This was her domain, and just like with Omnitraxsis or Rhombulus, it was meant to bend to her will and her will alone. A single second could be a hundred years in the regular flow of spacetime, or sixteen years could be sped up to take all of eight minutes. It was all up to Hekapoo, and she had meant it when she had told a Marco that was all too well aware of that little fact that she wasn't at all sorry. Still, she couldn't help but recall the conversation with Moon vividly as she continued to pet a purring Nacho's head.

" _You want me to what?" Hekapoo asked skeptically as she looked up from her tea to stare at Queen Moon incredulously._

" _I need you to... test young Marco, Star's friend," Moon reiterated somewhat uncomfortably._

" _And why exactly would I need to do something like that?" Hekapoo asked._

 _Moon looked contemplative for a moment before she sighed and set down her own tea as she noted, "Because only a fool cannot see what is developing between Star and Marco if they take the time to look. River noticed it. I noticed it. Baby noticed it during her brief evaluation of Star. And if he was willing to tell anyone anything of consequence I'm quite certain Glossaryk has seen it too. It would certainly explain why he's shown no reluctance whatsoever to include Marco in Star's training," Moon elaborated._

" _Okay, so your little girl likes them a little more breakable than the average Mewman. So what?" Hekapoo replied with a shrug._

" _It's more than a simple crush, Hekapoo. I could deal with infatuation easily enough. She certainly got over that idiot Tom once she saw him for what he was. No, Star is in love with Marco Diaz. She can look at him with all his faults and failings and still care enough for him to destroy her wand to save him. There's no denying it at this point. Why do you think I let Star bring him to the family reunion this year? Whether he knows it or not that boy will end up becoming my son-in-law one day," Moon elaborated._

" _If he survives the courtship, you mean," Hekapoo noted with a snicker. Star's destructive tendencies and magical accidents weren't exactly a secret among the High Commission. Then again, Hekapoo remembered a headstrong and plucky princess by the Name of Moon Butterfly a generation ago that beat Toffee himself and sent the immortal monster scurrying off missing a finger and with his tail quite literally between legs._

 _Moon let out a fretful hum as she nodded and agreed, "Exactly. Although it's not quite that dire. He's already a rather accomplished fighter against the monsters Ludo had in his employ and he seems to adapt well to the chaos that Star brings to his life. If anything he's done more the help stabilize her and balance her out than anyone could have dared to hope for. But I still fear as they grow older that he might not be up to the challenges of a life married to Star. He's not exactly as hardy as River was at that age, nor would he have reason to believe he should be training himself to grow stronger. At this point I believe he's completely unaware of Star's feelings for him. In fact, the last I spoke to her she had mentioned he was dating a child from Earth that he had a crush on since he was a toddler and that they were quite happy."_

" _Well that must suck for the Princess," Hekapoo noted with a air of boredom. She still didn't see where she had to get involved in all of this._

 _Moon waved her had dismissively as she responded, "Puppy love between a pair of fourteen year-old children. When Star gets it in her head to make the effort to take what's hers this Jackie girl won't stand a chance. She and Marco are willing to risk their lives for one another without question. Some regular girl from town won't stand in the place of that."_

" _Does the kid even have any idea how much you really spy on them with magic?" Hekapoo asked._

" _Of course not. She thinks she's getting away with far more than she is just because I'm not there looking over she shoulder. It's easier to have her believe that rather than try to actively hide what she's doing with the wand. Besides, I had to make certain Marco was honorable when she first moved in with his family. Thus far he's more than exceeded every expectation I could have for him," Moon confirmed._

" _So if the kid is so great, what the heck do you need me for?" Hekapoo demanded._

" _Just because he has the will to match Star doesn't necessarily mean he has the body or the spirit to match. He is only a human, after all," Moon noted worriedly._

" _Uh...huh. And you want me to test his spirit?" Hekapoo asked._

" _And possibly train him physically. You are one of the most athletically inclined of us all with your speed and your ability to clone yourself would be invaluable as a training tool," Moon pointed out._

" _So what kind of test did you have in mind?" Hekapoo asked._

" _I was thinking... a trial for his own pair of Dimensional Scissors. A True Pair, not the common ones you see floating around these days as various heirlooms and such, nor those shoddy knock-offs like those dreadful dimensional chainsaws from Quest Buy," Moon suggested._

" _Are you nuts? How the heck is a human supposed to survive one of the Old Trials? I haven't made someone go through those in centuries. The High Commission under your grandmother deemed they were too unfair in limiting access to my dimensional scissors and led to the creation of those stupid knock-offs," Hekapoo demanded hotly. "And besides, the kid would have to go scissor happy and be called in directly for misusing a pair for me to even call for a trial to get his own pair."_

" _Yes, that will be something of the more difficult part of this. Marco is not nearly as impulsive and prone to magical excesses as Star is and wouldn't be the type to called in for the Trial under most circumstances. I'll likely have to cast some kind of mild geas to make him wait for the right opportunity and drive him to use the pair of your scissors you arranged for Star to obtain on his own. And speak to Princess Ponyhead so that she will give the impression to Star that you didn't just give them to her to take to Star if she's questioned," Moon reluctantly explained._

" _Ah, Horsehead Girl knows to keep her mouth shut. As far as she knows you don't even know about the scissors I arranged for Star to get as a birthday present. She'll say whatever I tell her to in order to keep things quiet," Hekapoo noted dismissively until her eyes went wide as she realized what else Moon has just said. "Wait a second. You're going to mess with the kid's MIND to force him into a trial under false pretenses?"_

" _No, just to get him there. You can make certain he has a free out to return to Earth at any time. In fact that might be better, kind of a temptation to give in for him to overcome," Moon mused thoughtfully._

" _You're completely nuts, you do know that, right? Okay so what, I make him work for getting the scissors for a few days, forge him a pair...that YOU will pay for by the way, and ship him home when he proves himself worthy?" Hekapoo asked._

" _The insanity of the plan is besides the point. And I'd prefer for you to test him for at least six months to a year before returning him to the point you took him from. Enough for him to develop some muscle memory and a taste for getting stronger as whatever passes for Mewberty with humans begins to settle enough that he'll have a taste for adulthood and want to work to return to that form," Moon answered._

" _A year? With a human? Are you kidding me? You are so going to owe me for this," Hekapoo groused._

She smiled sardonically as she recalled her words that day. She never expected the kid to be good enough to figure out how to trick one of her clones to be blown out within less than five minutes (which was double impressive as beating a single clone was the usual benchmark for the Old Trials). The sneaky brat drew her clone in like a sucker with a pretend fall off of a cliff and had her beat before she knew what happened. That was the first moment she began to feel her own respect for Marco Diaz instead of just going along with what Moon told her about him.

It had seemed so simple in the beginning, even if she did cheat and add a few hundred extra clones to try to dishearten him and make him go home. She would play a bit of a dimensional game of hide and seek mixed with tag through the various worlds in her realm to toughen the kid up a bit and see what he was really made of. But it became more than that as their little dance started. What began mostly as her leading the boy around by the nose quickly evolved into her being curious about how he would handle each obstacle she put in his way before reaching one of her clones. From that curiosity grew a grudging respect at his resourcefulness and determination. And from that respect grew a sense of pride in his accomplishments as he kept going no matter what.

By the end of the first year in her realm she knew she wasn't ready to give him up yet. He was far too interesting and entertaining for that. But it was well after that first year that she came to see him as hers. Her project. Her charge to mold the way Glossaryk molded the Butterfly line. And eventually, her son. Or at least as close as an immortal sorceress like her could ever have. The nature of her domain and her power meant it was all but impossible she would ever produce a natural heir of her own (no matter what she did with the willing partners she would find to pass the time with during a visit to places like the Bounce Lounge).

Sometimes she wondered objectively as he grew why she had developed such a parental attachment to the boy? Why did she never see him as a potential romantic interest or even as a simple annoyance taking up her precious time? She supposed part of it was knowing he was intended for Moon's brat, although the more she trained him and saw him grow the more she doubted Star was good enough for Marco at this point. But the biggest part of it was that no matter how he grew, part of her still saw that somewhat scrawny fourteen year old that refused to give up. And not because he wanted something for himself. No, he would never give up because the scissors he had were Star's and he would not let her down. Even under Moon's stupid geas his desires were completely selfless and innocent, like those of a child.

And as one year became two, then three, and four, that admiration of his determination only grew. By the time he had been in her dimension for a decade subjectively she felt it was time to train more than just his body. She knew he was reaching an age when most humans finished their scholarly pursuits and found a profession. And while her little boy would do fine as an adventurer (She gave up sometime around his seventh year in even worrying about him becoming the King of Mewni. If Moon's kid was going to have HER little Marco, she would have to step up and prove herself worthy the way he had.) she knew he would want more. So she arranged for him to "lose" her trail and come across the order of monks that worshiped her as a goddess. From there he was led to the dimensional scholars that could help him understand the academic side of what Hekapoo did in forging her scissors. In fact, by the time he finally found the real her after his sixteenth year she was certain Marco could forge a credible method to traverse dimensions all on his own akin to realm-jumpers like the Mad Hatters, or noted dimensional walkers like Frigga and Loki of Asgard. He could certainly do better than those ridiculous chainsaws that monsters like the bounty hunter Rasticore used to make themselves feel big. But at that point he would settle for nothing less than the actual scissors he came for.

And as he arrived at her castle forge to collect his hard earned prize, she could not resist the feeling of pride and accomplishment she felt for him. She wanted to tell him how proud she was of him. How much he had impressed her. How much he had impacted her life in what was little more than the blink of an eye to an immortal like her.

But it wasn't to be. The moment she worked up the nerve to open up to the son of her heart, it was ruined as the walking natural disaster that was Star Butterfly stormed in demanding her best friend back. And what, really, could Hekapoo do? She left the ultimate decision up to Marco, assuring him that he would always be welcome in her home. And with a single plea and a teary eye Star convinced him to return with her to Earth.

Of course, Hekapoo couldn't send him back as a 30 year-old man. That would raise far too many questions, especially with Moon. So she returned him to the little boy she remembered. The boy that defeated her first clone. The boy that inadvertently captured her heart as a surrogate mother the way he captured Star's in regard to romance. And she marked him as hers, essentially declaring him as her heir. And should he need her, she would be there in a heartbeat ready to lend a friendly ear or destroy those that would harm him.

What else was a mother to do?

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 **Author's Note** : Okay this popped into my head as I made suggestions for the All Sorts oneshots by nightmareking. I don't plan to exactly end it here as I want to add little interludes here and there where Hekapoo visits Marco and offers him advice or tries to help him behind the scenes "off camera" while maintaining canon for the most part. If you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see in this little slice of the multi-verse please met me know in a review or a PM. As always I look forward to your feedback.


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